11-11 Sunday Being Sunday it is time to get to church! Mom decided she wanted to go to the Methodist church, the one with the big banner in front. I head off and start to drop off at the Mission exit when she asked where I was going? I told her the Methodist church and she announced the one she was talking about was on 10th Street in McAllen. I decided to just go along and see what she was talking about since we had time, so about 8 miles later we were on 10th Street and there is no church. I tried, in my nicest voice, to say I would like to take her to the church I remember had a banner. Pulling up in front of the church she said it was the right one.
Charles Baskin is the pastor there and he was outside greeting those arriving for the service. He was most relaxed and acted as if he had all the time in the world to talk. Having now gone to the Good Shepherd UMC in Charlotte, NC and to the Faith UMC in Elkhart where pastors Talbot and Larry, respectively, both took time to walk around and great people both outside and inside the sanctuary, as did Charlie, we seem to be finding a very nice common thread among Methodist pastors. These are not the only churches where this happened, but they are the three most memorable.
Charlie’s wife Heidi plays the keyboards and leads the singing at the contemporary service. She is also the one who makes pumpkin bread in a mason jar for guests. She prepares the mixture, then puts it into the jar and bakes it there. She seals the jar and puts a Bible verse on as a final touch. Bobbie, the one woman welcome committee who visited us this morning (Monday) to great us says we should enjoy the bread, but bringing the jar back does not equate to a refill – Oh, shucks.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Bentsen State Park
Happy birds enjoying the regular handouts.
Saw these but unable to get my own shot.
Some local residents.
An uncooperative Javelina11-10 Saturday We took advantage of the cool morning and road our bikes through the Bentsen State Park. This is a park that adjoins the campground property. As guests here, we have unlimited access to this park. It is a birding center and one of the reasons we decided on this location in the Valley. The road through the park is four miles. It is an old campground that closed so that it could be better used as a birding center. The campground is still there, but you can see it was designed for RVs that were sold in the 50’s. With only state vehicles allowed in the park, it remains very quiet. One of the workers coming through checking the park on a golf cart was the nosiest thing we heard.
Riding through the park we saw a lot of birds. They were being fed so they are like cats; if you feed them they never leave. We also saw a few Green Jays. They have a nice call to go with their blue heads, black throat, green backs and yellow tails. In flight they are very colorful as well as being fast and agile. Without a longer lens, I was unable to get a picture of a single one.
We had been told the there were Javelinas in the park but did not expect to see any – it is a very large park measured in miles. To our surprise, six ran out of the woods in front of us. They can move quickly so I only got a shot of 3 of them before they disappeared into the woods. A bit further down the road and we spotted another grazing alone. He did not want to turn around and I was not about to get off the bike to get a better shot. Maybe another time one will be more willing to show his or her better side or end.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Things around Mission, TX
11/5 – 11/9 Monday – Friday We are still involved in getting settled and finding our way around. It is interesting how here, like some of the NE states, they don’t bother to put street signs up. You must do a lot of guessing to get around or have a GPS to help navigate.
The homes run from some REALLLLY nice homes to some that look as if they should have been condemned several years ago but no one has gotten around to posting the notice. Concrete blocks are used in much of the construction. One home we saw today was made of poured concrete or thin concrete blocks with stucco outside. I am sure the fire insurance on that home will be much cheaper than that of the neighbors.
Something very prevalent in the area is the use of burglar bars on both homes and businesses, even in some nice areas and serious fences around homes. These are not your typical chain link or board fences, instead they are 7’ and 8’ metal and concrete fences the are all the way around the house with large gates to drive through. Another thing is the amount of graffiti on any flat surface from a highway sign that has nothing but a number to the side of a building or wall. Most of the bridge walls have managed to escape these delinquents attention.
Should you drive in the area, especially on US-83, be warned that TxDOT has designed the road exits where you exit on the backside of a bridge and the road you have exited for may be a mile or more down the service road. This is in contrast to a place like Houston where you exit for a cross street and you can see the traffic light or stop sign as you exit. If you guess wrong on the exit, it is easily 2 miles back to the business you just past. This frequently means you cannot see the business you want to reach and get off the road to pull into their parking lot. Here you must know your exit and get off without the comfort of seeing your destination.
I did some investigating and found the woodshop here at the park is a well-equipped shop in a large metal building. The machines are more of the lighter weight category, but they are all full size. They have wood and metal lathes, table saw, miter saw, grinder and a knife sharpener, routers, jointer, planner, drill press, radial arm saw and band saw; think that is all the power equipment. The tool room is well equipped with air nailers and staplers, Forstner bit sets, sanders, grinders, saber saws, quality bar clamps, just to name a few. Some of the people who come here spend so much time there that they have lockers for their projects. I have not had time to go there to work, but I did get some supplies to use for various projects just as soon as time permits. The only problem I found was the blade on the table saw is a carpenter’s grade carbide blade. I will be encouraging them to get a blade more consistent with cabinetmaking so we are able to do more quality work.
We did go out tonight and found the local Harbor Freight, and then we headed off to a Mexican restaurant that has been around for 24 years and has four locations in this area. It sounded as if this was going to be a good location, but as our RV club says, this was both our first time and our last time there. It is fun checking out places, but we need to work more on not setting our expectations quite so high, instead we should set a middle ground and then be pleased when the food exceeds this measure.
We just read a story in the AARP Magazine about a man who had never driven or camped in an RV who, when loaned an RV for a month and hit the road in the Northeast, found food at local restaurants vs. chain establishments to frequently be disappointing regardless how tasty the name sounded. These same entrepreneurs frequently advertised the best (what ever) in the state or region of the country, and then when you order it you suddenly realized the owner never leaves his or her home county.
At least at this Mexican restaurant the staff was Hispanic and dressed the part. Our waiter was an older man and he was dressed well above the level of the others. It did make for a fun experience in a new town, so the experience on a scale of 1 to 10 was about a 5+.
The homes run from some REALLLLY nice homes to some that look as if they should have been condemned several years ago but no one has gotten around to posting the notice. Concrete blocks are used in much of the construction. One home we saw today was made of poured concrete or thin concrete blocks with stucco outside. I am sure the fire insurance on that home will be much cheaper than that of the neighbors.
Something very prevalent in the area is the use of burglar bars on both homes and businesses, even in some nice areas and serious fences around homes. These are not your typical chain link or board fences, instead they are 7’ and 8’ metal and concrete fences the are all the way around the house with large gates to drive through. Another thing is the amount of graffiti on any flat surface from a highway sign that has nothing but a number to the side of a building or wall. Most of the bridge walls have managed to escape these delinquents attention.
Should you drive in the area, especially on US-83, be warned that TxDOT has designed the road exits where you exit on the backside of a bridge and the road you have exited for may be a mile or more down the service road. This is in contrast to a place like Houston where you exit for a cross street and you can see the traffic light or stop sign as you exit. If you guess wrong on the exit, it is easily 2 miles back to the business you just past. This frequently means you cannot see the business you want to reach and get off the road to pull into their parking lot. Here you must know your exit and get off without the comfort of seeing your destination.
I did some investigating and found the woodshop here at the park is a well-equipped shop in a large metal building. The machines are more of the lighter weight category, but they are all full size. They have wood and metal lathes, table saw, miter saw, grinder and a knife sharpener, routers, jointer, planner, drill press, radial arm saw and band saw; think that is all the power equipment. The tool room is well equipped with air nailers and staplers, Forstner bit sets, sanders, grinders, saber saws, quality bar clamps, just to name a few. Some of the people who come here spend so much time there that they have lockers for their projects. I have not had time to go there to work, but I did get some supplies to use for various projects just as soon as time permits. The only problem I found was the blade on the table saw is a carpenter’s grade carbide blade. I will be encouraging them to get a blade more consistent with cabinetmaking so we are able to do more quality work.
We did go out tonight and found the local Harbor Freight, and then we headed off to a Mexican restaurant that has been around for 24 years and has four locations in this area. It sounded as if this was going to be a good location, but as our RV club says, this was both our first time and our last time there. It is fun checking out places, but we need to work more on not setting our expectations quite so high, instead we should set a middle ground and then be pleased when the food exceeds this measure.
We just read a story in the AARP Magazine about a man who had never driven or camped in an RV who, when loaned an RV for a month and hit the road in the Northeast, found food at local restaurants vs. chain establishments to frequently be disappointing regardless how tasty the name sounded. These same entrepreneurs frequently advertised the best (what ever) in the state or region of the country, and then when you order it you suddenly realized the owner never leaves his or her home county.
At least at this Mexican restaurant the staff was Hispanic and dressed the part. Our waiter was an older man and he was dressed well above the level of the others. It did make for a fun experience in a new town, so the experience on a scale of 1 to 10 was about a 5+.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Home in Mission,TX
Don't know why Google printed the pictures twice, but here goes anyway!
I need to get this out before the grass dries out any more! Yes, it is dry here now, yet it is reported that the grass and everything was so green earlier this spring and summer when the rains were very frequent.
I need to get this out before the grass dries out any more! Yes, it is dry here now, yet it is reported that the grass and everything was so green earlier this spring and summer when the rains were very frequent.
Home in Mission, TX at the park. A few shots of the RV all settled in.
11-1 Thursday - Sunday We arrived in Mission, Texas for the winter. With a bit of difficulty we located the park. Our GPS wanted us to exit well before our correct exit causing confusion. Finally arriving, we were extremely pleased to find this is a 5-year old park and the owner is making it a premium quality park. There is another park going in with considerable similarity to this park that is another venture of this owner. In that case, the lots are selling for $39,900. In this park all the sites are either paved with asphalt or concrete. All the roads are wide, smooth asphalt. All the sites have native plants and other native landscaping.
Everything is clean and well organized throughout the park. I did a bicycle tour of the park in the evening again in the morning. Getting around at night was not especially difficult as there is some lighting around the park but not enough to cancel out the stars. The day tour just showed how neat everything was.
I took some pictures but discovered when downloading them to the computer I had bumped the setting and everything was dark so the pictures reflect day 4 on the site. Things are really dry here after having had a very rainy spring and summer leaving everything then very well watered. We did water the plants and found the dirt here really loses all strength when wet; more than normal mud. Even the stakes I put in the ground to hold the awning are pulling out with almost no pressure.
Doing some scouting around, the park I found it is adjacent to a butterfly park. It must be busy in season as there is considerable paved parking. We have a gate from the park giving us direct access without having to through the front gate and down the road. In addition, there is a state park a short distance down the road that is a bird sanctuary. This area is on the bird flyway coming from Mexico and South America to the northern states and Canada. Right now the majority of the birds are grackles and they are very vocal.
The park has a 4-wheel ATV and kayaks they loan to guests. At first they send someone out with you when you take the ATV the first time to show you the roads and trails so you do not get on the wrong trail and suddenly you are crossways with the Border Patrol. We hope to do this on Monday for the first time. They also have a 12-passenger ‘ATV’ that is a modified buggy operating on large tires to get through mud and swamps. That “GATV” as they call it (G is for giant) and is operated by the park owner for the enjoyment of the guests and their friends on Wednesdays.
The pictures are taken around the park.
Everything is clean and well organized throughout the park. I did a bicycle tour of the park in the evening again in the morning. Getting around at night was not especially difficult as there is some lighting around the park but not enough to cancel out the stars. The day tour just showed how neat everything was.
I took some pictures but discovered when downloading them to the computer I had bumped the setting and everything was dark so the pictures reflect day 4 on the site. Things are really dry here after having had a very rainy spring and summer leaving everything then very well watered. We did water the plants and found the dirt here really loses all strength when wet; more than normal mud. Even the stakes I put in the ground to hold the awning are pulling out with almost no pressure.
Doing some scouting around, the park I found it is adjacent to a butterfly park. It must be busy in season as there is considerable paved parking. We have a gate from the park giving us direct access without having to through the front gate and down the road. In addition, there is a state park a short distance down the road that is a bird sanctuary. This area is on the bird flyway coming from Mexico and South America to the northern states and Canada. Right now the majority of the birds are grackles and they are very vocal.
The park has a 4-wheel ATV and kayaks they loan to guests. At first they send someone out with you when you take the ATV the first time to show you the roads and trails so you do not get on the wrong trail and suddenly you are crossways with the Border Patrol. We hope to do this on Monday for the first time. They also have a 12-passenger ‘ATV’ that is a modified buggy operating on large tires to get through mud and swamps. That “GATV” as they call it (G is for giant) and is operated by the park owner for the enjoyment of the guests and their friends on Wednesdays.
The pictures are taken around the park.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Out of Houston for the Valley
10-31 Wednesday We departed Houston for the Texas Valley today. Although we were in Houston several days, we failed to make contact with several friends we really wanted to see. Not sure how the time got away from us, but it appears to be a characteristic of retirement. At least we managed to get all our Houston doctor business done; not an easy task for sure.
We had a late brunch with daughter Connie who recommended we take Barker Cypress to US-59 south to avoid construction on parts of Houston’s Beltway 8 and Us-59. Likely, in retrospect, we should have taken the Beltway and paid the toll. We drove 40 miles and it only took about 1-1/2 hours. No traffic, but lots of lights and slow zones. Finally we were on 59 and up to a steady 63MPH.
The drive was not bad as US-59 is mostly a 4 lane divided road. It is a little rough in sections, but not to compare with I-10 through Louisiana. As a side note, we hear that section of road may have been paved, but I find it hard to believe. We will learn for sure in December when we head to Florida for Christmas.
We zipped around Corpus and on into Kingsville, still making good time. Finally it was time to give it up for the day so we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Falfurrias. It is not a 24-hour store, but several other RVers and a few trucks made this home base for the night. We are less than 85 miles from our destination, so tomorrow should be an easy drive while putting us into the park with plenty of time to set up and do a little exploring.
We had a late brunch with daughter Connie who recommended we take Barker Cypress to US-59 south to avoid construction on parts of Houston’s Beltway 8 and Us-59. Likely, in retrospect, we should have taken the Beltway and paid the toll. We drove 40 miles and it only took about 1-1/2 hours. No traffic, but lots of lights and slow zones. Finally we were on 59 and up to a steady 63MPH.
The drive was not bad as US-59 is mostly a 4 lane divided road. It is a little rough in sections, but not to compare with I-10 through Louisiana. As a side note, we hear that section of road may have been paved, but I find it hard to believe. We will learn for sure in December when we head to Florida for Christmas.
We zipped around Corpus and on into Kingsville, still making good time. Finally it was time to give it up for the day so we stopped at the Wal-Mart in Falfurrias. It is not a 24-hour store, but several other RVers and a few trucks made this home base for the night. We are less than 85 miles from our destination, so tomorrow should be an easy drive while putting us into the park with plenty of time to set up and do a little exploring.
Monday, October 29, 2007
October catch up
Frankly I got way behind on my blog. Sitting around getting the coach worked on did not make for much good news. Fussing about Dometic falls more in the category of a personal problem, so I became lax. Well, here are a few notes and things that did go on that made our October notable in our travels.
10-9 Tuesday Here we are on day 34 camping at Camp Mandalay Resort, but unlike the many previous days here, we are hitting the road today. Dometic is sending the refrigerator coil we need to a Houston repair facility where we will be for two weeks and at this time, this is the problem area that has held us hostage in Elkhart.
The problem we were having with the front A/C unit appears to be better since I spent an hour taping the transition area from the A/C unit to the RVs duct lines in the ceiling. The unit is still freezing up if run on automatic, so this still suggests there could be a refrigerant problem or poor air flow. I am now banking on the latter. Newmar has much larger vents so there is less restriction promoting greater cooling. Making this change on our coach will be challenging.
As we drove down the road today we saw many trees with their leaves reflecting the fall colors. The temp is high today but obviously there have been enough cold nights to tell the trees it is fall and time to put on the fancy colors. Due to the lack of adequate rains the colors are not as intense yet quite enjoyable to see. We are going to be on interstate roads for the next few days, so it will be interesting to see if the colors continue.
10-10 Wednesday Today will just be covering a bunch of miles quickly. With about 1080 miles to cover in three days at an average of 58 miles per hour, we need to stay focused. We did hit the road early so the 420 miles in one day still had us off the road early enough to have some down time. We took advantage of a Wal-Mart parking lot just south of Little Rock for the night as well as the opportunity to make three trips to the store for groceries and new lounge chairs with the other two trips to get things we missed the first time. We may not have paid rent for the night, but it was clearly not a ‘free’ night!
10-11 Thursday On the road again early, we are headed to Plano, Texas northwest of Dallas. We have stayed at Lavon Lake before but elected to stay at another park so we could have 50-amp power. We are anticipating it will be more than a little warm in Texas, so 50-amp power will allow use of both A/C units. The last time we were at this lake the water was quite low, but this time with all the summer rains, the level was about as high as the lake was designed to hold.
10-12 Friday Daughter Storm took the day off to visit with us. With her work responsibilities, taking off normally means the work is piling up on her desk. Even though she had left messages she would be out until Monday, her Blackberry went off several times. Today was just a fun day of catching up and telling stories. She did get up and make a lemon cake early so we would have a special dessert to enjoy – a dessert we both enjoy but neither of us normally would have otherwise. We were so busy catching up we never left the RV.
10-13 Saturday Today we went to see Storm and Wes at their home. They are very fortunate to have such a nice home and they have worked hard to decorate and do maintenance work around the house creating a very attractive home. They are very particular about the appearance of their property and that of the neighbors. Storm was laughing about how Wes had even gone down the street and edged the neighbor’s sidewalk thinking the house was empty. When he was finishing, the owner came out and thanked him. Seems the owner would rather play golf than edge. Storm prepared a very delicious meal early enough that we had time to all return to the RV so Wes and his daughter Catlin could see our new unit.
10-14 Sunday Leigh has a sister living south of Arlington, TX (between Dallas and Fort Worth). We decided, rather on the spur of the moment that we would try to surprise her and drop in. Leigh called to be sure she was not leaving to go somewhere and Kathy caught on where we were when Leigh called out a highway sign in Dallas as she was trying to keep me in the right lane. If you have driven through the downtown area of Dallas, you will understand why it is wise to have a navigator, especially when you have a rig almost 50’ long you are driving.
We arrived at Kathy and Frank’s and she was standing in the yard waving. The entrance road runs behind the house so she was able to see us turn in; it is really hard to hide a large motorhome. When Leigh let the cat out of the bag, Frank left almost immediately and bought ribs and other food for dinner. The sisters had not seen each other for over 6 years, so there was some catching up to do. Although they communicate by Internet messaging, it is not the same as in person.
Kathy and Frank had moved to this home about a year ago from the Oklahoma City area. The property is on some acreage and they have created a very attractive and comfortable home. Kathy is into irises and the yard is loaded with carefully marked plants. The two of them have some grand plans to expand their activity and enlarge the yard. Frank found himself growing watermelons and his crop is really growing very well. One of the melons caught under the edge of the porch and was forcing the porch up as it filled out. That represented some real power!
Their home is on a hill and they report the wind blows up there all the time. I think they may even look into a wind generator and maybe sell some power back to the local utility company. There is a very informative article in Popular Mechanics about installing a wind generator for the home. For them, this could be a real important addition to their property. While we were there, due to the winds, I even ran two of the RV slides in during the night to lessen the effect of the wind on the RV.
We really had a great time there and look forward to going through Dallas and stopping there again.
Following this visit it was into Houston, it was time to make the rounds of doctors to get things arranged for the next year. It also gave me time to go by Jerry’s tech lab to get a few ‘government’ projects done. It is really nice to work in a facility that has equipment in great condition. The students were very well behaved and knew what was expected of them and what they needed to do in class. It made things move smoothly for everyone in the program and a very relaxed, smiling instructor. I wanted to make a few racks to store things in the RV basement to make thing more organized and neater.
We think that the refrigerator is finally fixed and working. The repair facility replaced the coil on the back as it tested as having a partial blockage. It took them a little over a day to do the work as someone at Mandalay had put a screw in during construction that they had extreme difficulty getting to. Sometimes those making something like this do not consider the possibility of repair and the person who must attempt this repair.
10-9 Tuesday Here we are on day 34 camping at Camp Mandalay Resort, but unlike the many previous days here, we are hitting the road today. Dometic is sending the refrigerator coil we need to a Houston repair facility where we will be for two weeks and at this time, this is the problem area that has held us hostage in Elkhart.
The problem we were having with the front A/C unit appears to be better since I spent an hour taping the transition area from the A/C unit to the RVs duct lines in the ceiling. The unit is still freezing up if run on automatic, so this still suggests there could be a refrigerant problem or poor air flow. I am now banking on the latter. Newmar has much larger vents so there is less restriction promoting greater cooling. Making this change on our coach will be challenging.
As we drove down the road today we saw many trees with their leaves reflecting the fall colors. The temp is high today but obviously there have been enough cold nights to tell the trees it is fall and time to put on the fancy colors. Due to the lack of adequate rains the colors are not as intense yet quite enjoyable to see. We are going to be on interstate roads for the next few days, so it will be interesting to see if the colors continue.
10-10 Wednesday Today will just be covering a bunch of miles quickly. With about 1080 miles to cover in three days at an average of 58 miles per hour, we need to stay focused. We did hit the road early so the 420 miles in one day still had us off the road early enough to have some down time. We took advantage of a Wal-Mart parking lot just south of Little Rock for the night as well as the opportunity to make three trips to the store for groceries and new lounge chairs with the other two trips to get things we missed the first time. We may not have paid rent for the night, but it was clearly not a ‘free’ night!
10-11 Thursday On the road again early, we are headed to Plano, Texas northwest of Dallas. We have stayed at Lavon Lake before but elected to stay at another park so we could have 50-amp power. We are anticipating it will be more than a little warm in Texas, so 50-amp power will allow use of both A/C units. The last time we were at this lake the water was quite low, but this time with all the summer rains, the level was about as high as the lake was designed to hold.
10-12 Friday Daughter Storm took the day off to visit with us. With her work responsibilities, taking off normally means the work is piling up on her desk. Even though she had left messages she would be out until Monday, her Blackberry went off several times. Today was just a fun day of catching up and telling stories. She did get up and make a lemon cake early so we would have a special dessert to enjoy – a dessert we both enjoy but neither of us normally would have otherwise. We were so busy catching up we never left the RV.
10-13 Saturday Today we went to see Storm and Wes at their home. They are very fortunate to have such a nice home and they have worked hard to decorate and do maintenance work around the house creating a very attractive home. They are very particular about the appearance of their property and that of the neighbors. Storm was laughing about how Wes had even gone down the street and edged the neighbor’s sidewalk thinking the house was empty. When he was finishing, the owner came out and thanked him. Seems the owner would rather play golf than edge. Storm prepared a very delicious meal early enough that we had time to all return to the RV so Wes and his daughter Catlin could see our new unit.
10-14 Sunday Leigh has a sister living south of Arlington, TX (between Dallas and Fort Worth). We decided, rather on the spur of the moment that we would try to surprise her and drop in. Leigh called to be sure she was not leaving to go somewhere and Kathy caught on where we were when Leigh called out a highway sign in Dallas as she was trying to keep me in the right lane. If you have driven through the downtown area of Dallas, you will understand why it is wise to have a navigator, especially when you have a rig almost 50’ long you are driving.
We arrived at Kathy and Frank’s and she was standing in the yard waving. The entrance road runs behind the house so she was able to see us turn in; it is really hard to hide a large motorhome. When Leigh let the cat out of the bag, Frank left almost immediately and bought ribs and other food for dinner. The sisters had not seen each other for over 6 years, so there was some catching up to do. Although they communicate by Internet messaging, it is not the same as in person.
Kathy and Frank had moved to this home about a year ago from the Oklahoma City area. The property is on some acreage and they have created a very attractive and comfortable home. Kathy is into irises and the yard is loaded with carefully marked plants. The two of them have some grand plans to expand their activity and enlarge the yard. Frank found himself growing watermelons and his crop is really growing very well. One of the melons caught under the edge of the porch and was forcing the porch up as it filled out. That represented some real power!
Their home is on a hill and they report the wind blows up there all the time. I think they may even look into a wind generator and maybe sell some power back to the local utility company. There is a very informative article in Popular Mechanics about installing a wind generator for the home. For them, this could be a real important addition to their property. While we were there, due to the winds, I even ran two of the RV slides in during the night to lessen the effect of the wind on the RV.
We really had a great time there and look forward to going through Dallas and stopping there again.
Following this visit it was into Houston, it was time to make the rounds of doctors to get things arranged for the next year. It also gave me time to go by Jerry’s tech lab to get a few ‘government’ projects done. It is really nice to work in a facility that has equipment in great condition. The students were very well behaved and knew what was expected of them and what they needed to do in class. It made things move smoothly for everyone in the program and a very relaxed, smiling instructor. I wanted to make a few racks to store things in the RV basement to make thing more organized and neater.
We think that the refrigerator is finally fixed and working. The repair facility replaced the coil on the back as it tested as having a partial blockage. It took them a little over a day to do the work as someone at Mandalay had put a screw in during construction that they had extreme difficulty getting to. Sometimes those making something like this do not consider the possibility of repair and the person who must attempt this repair.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Catching up part 2
Pictures are from the RV and Motorhome Museum in Elkhart. The first picture is an 1913 travel trailer pulled by a Model T; reported to be the oldest travel trailer in the world. It was made for a Cal Tech professor.
The second picture is a 1935 Covered Wagon brand with genuine leaterette stretched over thin plywood.
Next is a 1955 Ranger crank up tent trailer.
Last is a 1931 Mae West Housecar used to carry her and friends between her dressing area and the set. It was also where she could rest between shootings.
9/6 Thursday It was another up and on the road early days. We were due to have some service work done at Equalizer Systems, so we should have been there a little after 8. Instead we were on the road at 8:05 on about a 30-minute drive. It turned out this was not a problem; they were just standing around waiting for something to do. We told them the problem and headed off for breakfast.
We had just finished breakfast when the phone rang and it was Cisco, the tech working on the coach advising us it was ready. We made a tour of Elkhart trying to find Mandalay and managed to get turned the opposite direction from where we needed to go. Finally we found our way in and they said to come in tonight and they would see what might be done to get us taken care of early.
We picked up the coach and headed to Mandalay with a stop at the local Wal-Mart. We settled into Mandalay where we will likely be for several days. Most of our punch list is stuff that should be easy for them, but we will wait and see - quite literally!
9/8 Saturday We had a lazy day with on and off rain, so we headed to a new farmers market we saw under construction when we were here in February. This is a really nice market unlike any we have ever seen before. The floors are thick, clear finished wood as is about everything else in this facility. It is a two-story building with 12” x 4” planks creating the open stairways. The building is about 6-stories high, but the real market is on the first and second floors. It is a large red barn like building that is almost as impressive outside as it is inside.
After getting some produce there, we headed to DeMartini to see if we had any mail. On the way there we passed gasoline at $2.89 vs. the $3.09 elsewhere. We topped off and thought we were doing well. We went up the same road about a mile and found it for $2.74. We could only laugh and drive on.
While in the same area, we found the plant or plants next to each other that build the UPS, Fed-Ex and Centis (sp ?) delivery trucks. The lot is full of units ready to be driven away to their new homes.
Some of the farms here have corn that is higher than my eye level when in the RV driver’s seat. This is by far the tallest corn we have seen and it is advertised as sweet corn like we have been seeing elsewhere, but that corn was considerably shorter; more in the 5’ range.
9/9 Sunday We found the Faith United Methodist Church was about the only one that we could attend. It seems most Baptist churches in the area begin their service at 10:15 and we were unable to dress and drive to any in time. Faith UMC began their service at 10:45. This appears to be a young (both in time in the area and age of the members), but very active in their work. Rev. Larry, Sr. Pastor gave a very strong sermon on the need of Christians to live their lives out in public where others can see Christianity practiced. Further, we need to stop our race to be politically correct and so afraid to offend others with our religious fervor. It appears we are hiding our God and our Savior for fear of offending some while at the same time providing the water and facilities for others to bow to their gods multiple times a day. It is a shame our politicians appear to be at the front leading us in this direction that is contrary to the results of polls where Americans say they are predominantly Christians and want to maintain our Christian heritage.
9/10 Monday We are now having to get out of our RV around 7AM so it can be worked on at the factory service center here in Elkhart, IN. It appears we will be following this early exiting routine for possibly the whole week; we have several things on our list to have done. Meantime we are seeing the sights of the area. We went to the RV & Motorhome Museum that moved from downtown to a new 80,000 sq. ft. facility just off I-80 a year ago. They have started an additional building program to enlarge the building by about another 30k sq. ft.
They have many old cars and RV equipment showing the evolution of the industry. They have many donated units from various RV builders that have been restored to their original beauty.
We had just finished breakfast when the phone rang and it was Cisco, the tech working on the coach advising us it was ready. We made a tour of Elkhart trying to find Mandalay and managed to get turned the opposite direction from where we needed to go. Finally we found our way in and they said to come in tonight and they would see what might be done to get us taken care of early.
We picked up the coach and headed to Mandalay with a stop at the local Wal-Mart. We settled into Mandalay where we will likely be for several days. Most of our punch list is stuff that should be easy for them, but we will wait and see - quite literally!
9/8 Saturday We had a lazy day with on and off rain, so we headed to a new farmers market we saw under construction when we were here in February. This is a really nice market unlike any we have ever seen before. The floors are thick, clear finished wood as is about everything else in this facility. It is a two-story building with 12” x 4” planks creating the open stairways. The building is about 6-stories high, but the real market is on the first and second floors. It is a large red barn like building that is almost as impressive outside as it is inside.
After getting some produce there, we headed to DeMartini to see if we had any mail. On the way there we passed gasoline at $2.89 vs. the $3.09 elsewhere. We topped off and thought we were doing well. We went up the same road about a mile and found it for $2.74. We could only laugh and drive on.
While in the same area, we found the plant or plants next to each other that build the UPS, Fed-Ex and Centis (sp ?) delivery trucks. The lot is full of units ready to be driven away to their new homes.
Some of the farms here have corn that is higher than my eye level when in the RV driver’s seat. This is by far the tallest corn we have seen and it is advertised as sweet corn like we have been seeing elsewhere, but that corn was considerably shorter; more in the 5’ range.
9/9 Sunday We found the Faith United Methodist Church was about the only one that we could attend. It seems most Baptist churches in the area begin their service at 10:15 and we were unable to dress and drive to any in time. Faith UMC began their service at 10:45. This appears to be a young (both in time in the area and age of the members), but very active in their work. Rev. Larry, Sr. Pastor gave a very strong sermon on the need of Christians to live their lives out in public where others can see Christianity practiced. Further, we need to stop our race to be politically correct and so afraid to offend others with our religious fervor. It appears we are hiding our God and our Savior for fear of offending some while at the same time providing the water and facilities for others to bow to their gods multiple times a day. It is a shame our politicians appear to be at the front leading us in this direction that is contrary to the results of polls where Americans say they are predominantly Christians and want to maintain our Christian heritage.
9/10 Monday We are now having to get out of our RV around 7AM so it can be worked on at the factory service center here in Elkhart, IN. It appears we will be following this early exiting routine for possibly the whole week; we have several things on our list to have done. Meantime we are seeing the sights of the area. We went to the RV & Motorhome Museum that moved from downtown to a new 80,000 sq. ft. facility just off I-80 a year ago. They have started an additional building program to enlarge the building by about another 30k sq. ft.
They have many old cars and RV equipment showing the evolution of the industry. They have many donated units from various RV builders that have been restored to their original beauty.
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